As a former director of the Center for Disease Control, Dr. Robert Redfield was on the frontline when the novel coronavirus announced its presence to an unsuspecting world.
Redfield assisted with setting policy and safety protocols during a time of great uncertainty and occasionally sided with other leading health officials in publicly dissenting from congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump.
“I knew from the beginning I was going to be a target,” he said during an exclusive interview Feb. 12 with The Catholic Commentator. Redfield was in Baton Rouge to deliver a presentation “Science, Medicine, Pandemic and Our Catholic Faith” at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Baton Rouge, which was sponsored by Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University.
“That was just a reality,” added Redfield, a Bethesda, Maryland native and lifelong Catholic.
He spent the weekend of Feb. 12-13 with Father Jeff Bayhi, pastor at St. John the Baptist Church in Zachary, who dialed up a few Louisiana delicacies for his guest.
“For many, faith is a part of their lives, for Dr. Redfield faith is his life,” Father Bayhi said. “And everything he does he does with that in mind.”
Recalling those early days of what would eventually turn into a worldwide pandemic, Redfield said the mistake was that “we should have called it COVID-19. We made too many assumptions that it was like SARS when in fact we learned later on that it was nothing like SARS.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was not the first time Redfield had been on the vanguard of a health crisis. During the 1990s he helped develop effective treatments for AIDS patients and in 2003 played a major role in assisting Catholic Relief Services secure a $370 million grant to provide those treatments to AIDS patients in a number of African and Caribbean countries.
“I’m very proud of that, to help the church get really practically involved in a meaningful way to impact the health and lives of the people in the Caribbean and South Africa,” Redfield said.
Whether it’s at ground zero of a worldwide pandemic or developing a medical treatment to help people survive what was previously considered a death sentence, Redfield’s life has been one of service; service to others, service to his communities and most important service to his faith.
“It goes back to what my mother and what the focus of my faith has taught me, that the purpose of life is to serve others,” he said. “St. Teresa of Calcutta set a great example for that.”
Redfield comes from humble beginnings, raised by his mom, who was widowed when her children were still at an early age. He remembers his mother not only assuring they attend Sunday Mass together, but also celebrating First Friday, First Saturday, benediction and the Stations of the Cross.
“She was a great example of the whole issue of service to others,” Redfield said. “In this case, it was a service to others. She worked her whole life to make sure we had a great education, loving family. It’s reinforcing that service to others.
“She had a very deep commitment to make sure we were raised in our Catholic faith.”
Service to others was the motivation for Redfield accepting the demanding role as CDC director in 2018, saying he believed he had trained his whole life for that job. At the time Redfield had a strong belief the country was at great risk for a pandemic but admittedly did not expect it to be a coronavirus.
“When asked to be the CDC director, my wife and I prayed about it and when we both got the same answer, I accepted,” he said. “I went there from the beginning trying to be prepared for an anticipated pandemic.”
As the virus began to splinter an entire country, especially along political fronts, Redfield, who earned his medical degree from Georgetown University, encountered challenges he never could have imagined. But during those darkest of days, when he was under siege from the media, politicians and others, he would retreat to the one place he knew he would find peace: kneeling before the Lord in eucharastic adoration.
“I (visited an eucharastic chapel) frequently, ”Redfield said. “I call it radiation therapy.”
“I believe with every bone in my body that the Lord is real and present in the Blessed Sacrament,” he added. “It is a very powerful, therapeutic tool. I was able to find peace with me and the Lord.”
Redfield has been accused in the past of allowing his Catholic faith to dictate public policy. When he was being mentioned for public health positions in the late 1990s, he said people would question him on a number of issues, especially about the sanctity of life. When questioned, he always reiterated his unwavering support for the sanctity of life.
“It is who we are so I just decided early on I was not going to disassociate my faith from my profession,” Redfield said. “I never bought into that somehow my work had to be divorced from my faith. I always told people if you are going to have me as a doctor, I am a Catholic doctor.
“The idea that you had to put that in the closet and not embrace your faith in your daily work is not good. I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve but I’m not going to put my faith in a closet either.”
Redfield said he made a decision “a long time ago who I worked for.
“And I work for the big guy upstairs.” He prays daily to ask God to provide him the guidance to use the opportunities present to him to the best of his ability as well as to give him the strength to not become demoralized by the criticism he often faced.
“I think it would be difficult in my eighth decade of life if I had to reflect on all of the times I abandoned my core beliefs to help my career,” he said. “I think I would have a harder time finding peace as I turn 70 and beyond.”
Redfield and his wife are active at Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore which abuts his own backyard and in fact they are next door neighbors with the pastor. The Redfields are eucharistic ministers and have also been involved in hospice care, ministering to the sick and for more than a decade were involved in precana and marriage preparation.
Redfield and his wife are also advisors to Archbishop William E. Lori and the archdiocesan school system.
Redfield said he worked closely with the chancellor of the school system and at his recommendation schools never closed during the pandemic.
“They had confidence in most of my recommendations, unlike the governors in most of our states,” he said. “I thought (closing) was negative to the health of our K-12 kids. They are much more damaged by closing the schools than having them in the classroom.”
Now out of the public eye, with no burning desire to return, Redfield is planning to open up his own practice treating patients with serious infectious diseases. Plans also include launching a new company to provide COVID-19 vaccines and treatment for viral diseases for low-income countries around the world.
And never being too far from an adoration chapel.
“That is our ministry,” Redfield said.